Saturday, December 30, 2006

to home and back again

The cousins are still cute (but they're growing quickly! Nicholas' voice started changing last month and he'll be taller than me next time I see him!).

I successfully learned to cast on and started knitting again after a 22 year hiatus... I finished one scarf and a half, but need to learn how to cast off and finish it!

The boxing day shopping was good.

The trip to see my great grandfather's laundry shop preserved at the Western Museum of development was cool.

What was difficult or weird:

My sister was not able to come and join us.

My expectations for hibernation and cave holiday time flew out the window early on and let's just say, the quiet didn't happen.

While my body rested well and I slept lots, my mind and spirit were restless. I think it's just been such a snowball-down-the-hill paced year that I didn't know how to just be still.

My trip ended on a sour note with some relational conflict that took me some recovery time to move on.

After all that and some cramped full flights all the way back, it was really good to come back to Vancouver and realize that this is home now. For the first time since I left my parents' home 12 years ago, I think I'm finally sinking some roots down and not wanting to run away somewhere new. That realization alone is a gift I am thankful for.

5 comments:

I can teach you how to bind off and finish your scarf. How great is it that you took up knitting again??

Your family is a piece of Canadian history - that's so cool!!! You can exploit that little tidbit in "get-to-know-you" icebreakers.

The Christmas season can be such a mixed bag of all the good, awful, and sheer messiness of humanity. I hope you were able to encounter the grace of God in full after the little hiccough at the end of your holidays.

ooh, both you and Dilys are into knitting???? I also picked up a piece of knitting I had put down two years ago. Lyn Khng has been wanting to get a knitting club together...haha. I just bought a "knitting for dummies" book over the holidays to practice some patterns and error correction. ;p. hehe. we can be knitting buddies! haha. Anyone know how to knit a sweater?

We combined Lynn's knitting circle idea with a desire of the RJD pad and we will be doing an arts and crafts night at our place sometime soon! Knitting apparently has suddenly become cool and less grandmotherly... I bet Lynn can figure out how to knit a sweater -- she knits teddy bears! :)

apparently, and i've heard it confirmed by two sources, the knitting trend surfaces every 5 years or so.

i'm all for promoting an inclusivity of arts-and-crafts activites, and not choosing one popular activity over another. there's just so many fun skills to pick up! one of these days, i'll learn how to quilt. i know who can teach me and she goes to grace vancouver!!!

who knows how to quilt at GV? That's not surprising as there are all kinds of artsy creative people there! I saw some books at the store designed all slick making knitting look sexy and sensual... i kid you not! what were the 2 sources? sounds interesting...